Pickup trucks and other related vehicles have a rear window, or backlite, that is mounted in a vehicle body aperture, immediately behind the seats in the vehicle passenger compartment. Many of the backlites are built with one or two slider panels that ride in slider tracks, while opening or closing across a portion of a window aperture.
The slider panels may be moved manually or automatically across the window aperture. When automatically driven, the slider panels may be moved by a window regulator, for example, like that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,401 to Lin (hereinafter Lin).
For the Lin device, there is a cable having a powered regulator attached to one cable end and a carrier block that is physically attached at another cable end, wherein the carrier block has a female carrier socket. In conjunction with the carrier block, an attachment block is rigidly mounted to a slidable window pane, wherein the attachment block has a male engagement stud that is loosely disposed within the female carrier socket. Consequently, when the Lin window regulator is powered for movement of the cable, the carrier socket and the engagement stud come into mating engagement that results in sliding movement of the slidable window pane. Such an arrangement is noisy, where the powered window regulator loosely drives the slidable window pane. Because of the many parts involved, the Lin window regulator has high material and labor costs.
Some slider assemblies are further designated as being flush where a sliding panel is in the plane of the fixed panel(s), when the sliding panel completely closes the backlite opening, or the complete window assembly may be in the plane of a vehicle body panel. Various ways to achieve flush orientation to fixed panels are, for example, by utilizing guide pins, ramps, and cams to move the sliding panel into the backlite opening.
An example of a horizontal sliding assembly that moves its sliding panel into the plane of a fixed panel, when the sliding panel completely closes the backlite opening, is U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,224 to Jelens (hereinafter, Jelens), which teaches a sliding window assembly having opposed longitudinally spaced first and second guide pins on the top and bottom of a slidable window that are adapted for sliding motion within corresponding first and second tracks respectively, as shown, for example, in Jelens' FIGS. 2-5 and 7.
Even further, some sliding assemblies are designated as being flush-flush, wherein the sliding panel is not only flush within the sliding assembly itself (i.e., the sliding panel being in the same plane as fixed panels) but the sliding assembly would also be in the same plane as an outer vehicle body panel. U.S. Pat. No. 7,641,265 to Seiple (hereinafter Seiple) is an example of a flush-flush sliding assembly, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
What is sought is a powered sliding assembly that directly, smoothly, and with less resistance drives a sliding panel with little noise. While achieving these benefits, it is desired for such a powered sliding assembly to be simple in design, thereby having few parts in order to reduce material and labor costs. Such a sliding assembly should also be capable of being flush-flush in design.